My new book Fresh Music is now available. Fresh Music has really nice reviews already! The book chronicles the many years, since the 1970’s, of the Creative Workshop Ensemble(CreW) at Berklee College of music and internationally. Bill F [ ... ]

Rob - Of course you live and breathe music. But what do you think you would do if you werent a musician? What is Jon Damian from the parallel universe doing for a living? Was there a point in your life when you wanted to do something else?
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Archive for
December, 2014

My new book Fresh Music is now available. Fresh Music has really nice reviews already! The book chronicles the many years, since the 1970’s, of the Creative Workshop Ensemble(CreW) at Berklee College of music and internationally. Bill Frisell and Joe Cohn were in the very first CreW at Berklee in 1978. The book is for musicians, artists, and teachers. I wrote the book in the form of a play with characters, the CreW members, including myself, and regular dialog with the readers, virtual CreW members. The book invites the reader to join in with CreW activities, into the bubbling stew of CreW ideas inspired by everything in the universe, from alphabets to zodiacs! Real ‘getting out of the box’ ideas!!

Here are a few reviews:

“This is a brilliant book. Bursting with ideas about improvising and its teaching—in jazz, any music, dance, painting—life! You name it! Full of specifics, and full of a lively, collaborative, adventurous, humane approach to the making of almost anything.”

Eleanor Duckworth Professor of education, emerita,Harvard University; modern dancer; author of The Having of Wonderful Ideas: And Other Essays on Teaching and Learning

“I received the most valuable elements from Jon’s Creative Workshop, opening a door of endless creativity in me as a film composer and concert artist.”

“I played in one of Jon Damian’s early Creative Workshop Ensembles. He showed me new ways of looking at what I already knew . . . turning them around and seeing them from a different angle. New possibilities. He opened the window and the door. He gave me the keys . . . a rope to hang onto allowing larger leaps. To not be afraid of jumping off . . . to make mistakes . . . to learn. Jon has spent his life dedicated to finding truth, beauty, and expanding the imagination. His new book Fresh Music welcomes us all into this amazing world.”

Bill Frisell Grammy-winning guitarist

You can use your credit card or PayPal right here and ask for a signed copy!

You can also contact me directly if you would like a signed copy. Contact me at:

The Creative Workshop Ensemble at Berklee College of Music was a lot of fun this semester. I had a great CreW to work with and the highlight was the production of an opera for my grand daughter Isabel Rose. Finger puppets in the guise of Louis Armstrong, Ms. Piggy, Marilyn Monroe, Puccini, and of course, myself, danced and sang their way through the opera. Thanks to the talents of creW members John, Colin, Tim and Bennett for helping to make the opera a magical event.